Luhut Wants Indonesia To Be An Exporter Of Green Energy In The Future

Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan (Photo: dock. Antara)

JAKARTA - Indonesia must expand the development of the green energy industry in order to maintain its status as an energy exporter and build a sustainable energy industry.

Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said the effort needed to be made to replace the export of fossil fuels which had been a mainstay.

Based on data from Bank Indonesia and the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM), Indonesia's export of fossil fuels in 2023 is quite significant, with coal exports reaching 518 million tons worth 43 billion US dollars.

In addition, pipeline gas exports reached 181 million metric British thermal units (MMBTU) and LNG exports reached 474 million MMBTU, with a total value of 8 billion US dollars.

Luhut realizes the importance of developing the domestic solar panel industry to avoid excessive dependence on imports and ensure sustainable green energy export models.

"We will export 2 GW (solar energy) to Singapore and at the same time, we must also build our own solar panel industry... We do not want to import solar panels to export green energy to Singapore," he said, quoting Antara.

Luhut said Indonesia has enormous renewable energy potential. This potential includes solar, wind, hydrogen, bioenergy, geothermal, and sea energy.

The solar energy potential reaches 3,286 gigawatts (GW), 155 GW wind, 95 GW hydrogen, 57 GW bioenergy, 24 GW geothermal, and 20 GW sea energy. Unfortunately, he said the current production of renewable energy is still very limited, only about 7 GW.

In an effort to expand the development of the domestic green energy industry, Luhut said that Indonesia in 2023 had signed a collaboration with Singapore regarding the development of the renewable energy manufacturing industry, such as the production of solar panels and battery energy storage systems (BESS).

He explained that the collaboration with Singapore has attracted investment in the green energy sector, especially in the development of solar power plants (PLTS) and battery supply chains.

The investment earned reached tens of billions of US dollars, covering 30'50 billion US dollars from energy development companies, 1.7 billion US dollars from solar panel manufacturers, and 1 billion US dollars from battery and inverters manufacturers.